The cute quotient was high at Swabhumi on July 19 as children aged between six and 10 decked up in saris, jewellery and make-up and performed Odissi.  

The dance competition was part of Utkala’s ongoing Odisha Festival and the first category was for the tots.  
Bandhuli Dutta said she was eight but she looked younger and her movements and expressions were adorable. “I remembered all the steps and my dance was perfect,” she said as she got off stage and put on her glasses. 

Eight year-old Sudarshana Mitra was scared seeing so many people in the audience. “So I imagined I was practising alone at home. The trick helped me relax,” smiled the girl who performed Shiva tandav stotra (Jata tavi). 

The girls may have been little but they have been learning for long. “I’m learning since I was three. My mother says I would start dancing to any music I heard so she enrolled me,” smiled nine-year-old Adreezaa Das, as mother Debkana did her make-up. 

Tamohato Mukhopadhyay had started dancing because her mother and sister danced and she didn’t want to feel left out. Her sister Prateeti also took part in the competition’s intermediate category. 

Dancer Debamitra Sengupta, who organised the show, informed that the contest drew over 60 participants, from places as far off as Burdwan. A few had come from Salt Lake, such as Hiya Mitra of DL Block. Her friend Vandita Venkatesh lives in Kasba but comes to AE Block to learn Odissi from dancer Arpita Venkatesh, who happens to be Vandita’s mother.  
“In class Vandita’s a student, not my daughter, and there is no scope for partiality towards her,” smiled Arpita. 
The parents were a supportive lot. “My daughter Beas loves dancing and has won over 70 prizes to date. We don’t even have space to keep them any more,” smiled a father, Jay Dhar. Little did he know that Beas would again win a prize here. She came second, while Angona Bose came third. 

The first prize went to 10-year-old Srija Bhattacharjee of Barrackpore. “I had won this contest last year too,” smiled Srija, who has been travelling to Bagbazar for her classes with Kakali Basu for five years now. 

The judges were impressed with the performances. “We were marking them on their sense of rhythm, footwork, expression and overall presentation,” said one of the judges, Odissi dancer Arundhati Roy. 

“If children start learning dance early their body language moulds faster but the most important factor is the will to learn, which can come at any age,” said Roy, who herself started learning classical dance at the age of 28.

The winners performed once again on Saturday evening.

Check your Rathayatra quotient

Inclement weather caused the Jagannath quiz to be called off on Saturday but quiz master Rajib Sanyal conducted a brief open quiz for the audience. Here are some of the questions—

On which day does the construction of the Rathayatra chariot start? 
Akshay Tritiya

What is the name of lord Jagannath’s aunt, at whose house he stops during the return journey on Ultarath? 
Ardhashini Devi. She is the deity at Mausi Maa temple.

What does the lord eat at his aunt’s house? 
Poda pitha, a kind of baked cake meant for the poor.

Why was the Patitapaban Jagannath idol installed at the main entrance of the temple?
King Gajapati Ram Chandra was an ardent devotee of Jagannath but since he had married a Muslim woman he was not allowed entry into the temple. So the Patitapaban Jagannath idol was installed at the gates so the king could see his lord from the road. 

What is Puri mahaprasad? 
There is a shrine for Ma Bimala within the Jagannath temple complex. Food that is offered to Jagannath is prasad but after being offered to Ma Bimala it becomes mahaprasad.